International Images Film Festival
source: Zimbo JamIt's all happening in Zimbabwe. Two Venues (Harare and Bulawayo) and 55 films.
The Film List
Major films showing at IIFF 2008
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Afghan Chronicles
Canada
2007, DVD, 54 mins, Feature
Director: Dominic Morissette
Writer: Dominic Morissette
Producers: Yves Bissaillon, Nathalie Barton
Since the fall of the Taliban, Afghanistan has been rebuilding itself and reviving democracy, and there is some freedom of expression. With its radio station and two magazines, one of them aimed at women, the press agency Killid Media is a real media phenomenon.
Gallery Delta - Sunday 23 Nov 15:30
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Africa’s Child
Benin/Malawi/DRC
2008, DVD, 25mins
Director: Jonathan Allen, Alex Gabbay
Producer: Enock Chinyeze, John Riber, Davina Rodrigues
This film shows the remarkable progress achieved by the Malawian government in reducing infant mortality thereby promoting breast-feeding and hygiene.
COS, Harare Gardens - Sat 22 Nov 12:30, Mon 24 Nov 12:30
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“...And the letter the children sent to God said…”
South Africa
2008, DVD, 16mins, Documentary
Director: Khalo Matabane
DOP: Chris Wessels
A poignant insight into the impact that growing inequality in South Africa is having on children’s prospects in poor communities in rural
KwaZulu Natal, this film portrays the daily lives of 11 year-old Banothile Zondi and 7 year-old orphaned Sihle Ngubane and their extended
families. The orphans struggle with homework, going to school, collecting water from the pump …
COS, Harare Gardens - Sat 22 Nov 12:30, Mon 24 Nov 12:30
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Bad Faith
France
2006, 35mm, 88mins, Feature
Cast: Ceciel De France, Roschdy Zem, Pascal Elbe, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Martine Chevalier
Director: Roschdy Zem
Producer: Nathalie Gastald (II), Phillppe Godeau
Production: Belgium
‘Bad Faith’ tackles the problems which arise when a Jewish woman and a Muslim-Arab man have to tell their respective folks they’ve been sleeping with each other.
Elite 100 - Sat 22 Nov 17:30, Tue 25 Nov 17:30
Rainbow R M - Wed 26 Nov 17:30
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Black Island Sisters
Sweden
2008, 35mm, 120mins, Feature
DOP: John O. Olsson Editor: Håkan Karlsson
Art Director: Sara Olsson Producer: John O. Olsso
Music: Christer Engberg, Jonatan Lundberg, Ola Gustavsson
Three women in different stages of life - a middle-aged single mother who is desperately lonely, increasingly alcohol dependent and negligent of her son; an optimistic and candid woman who cares for her elderly father; a beautiful young girl who dreams of becoming a songwriter - are very different but have two things in common. They all work at the big local steelworks. But, more importantly, they are members of the same band, whose raucous concerts seem to be the only time they feel fully alive. This drama comedy follows them through romance and disappointments in a warm and compassionate film with an excellent sense of locale.
Elite 100 - Sun 23 Nov 15:00, Thu 27 Nov 17:30
Rainbow R M - Wed 26 Nov 12:30, Fri 28 Nov 17:30
BYO: Rainbow City - Fri 4 Dec 17:30 by invitation
Amakhosi - Sun 7 Dec 14:00
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Children of Eternity
Iran
2007, DVD, 90mins, Feature
Director: Pouran Derakhshandeh
Script: Pouran Derakhshandeh
A young and beautiful lady is about to get married to her beloved boyfriend. The boyfriend has to take care of his widowed mother and his Down’s syndrome younger brother. So, are the parents, especially the father of the lady, going to allow their only child to get married under this pressure?
Gallery Delta - Sat 22 Nov 20:00, Wed 26 Nov 15:00
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Courting Justice
South Africa
2008, DVD, 108mins, Documentary
Director: Jane Lipman
A system moves from tyranny to democracy. What is essential for transformation to succeed? South Africa’s answer: a constitution acclaimed for its promise of comprehensive human rights; an independent judiciary to guard those rights; and a judiciary, transformed by race and gender, able to render justice and claim a lost legitimacy. Women were to wear judicial robes for the first time. Their appointments, however, moved at a slow pace. By 2008, fourteen years after the gate to transformation was flung open, women held but 18% of the superior court seats. Courting Justice is the compelling story of the challenges faced by seven women judges.
COS, Harare Gardens - Wed 26 Nov 12:30, Fri 28 Nov 15:00
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Cross Over (Daatu)
India
2007, 35mm, 120mins, Feature
Producer: Dr. M. Byre Gowda
Director: K. Shivarudraiah
DOP: S. Ramachandra Aithal
Sharanda, while cleaning the idols of the puja room, removes a bundle of anklets from her ancestors. For this mistake she has to perform a 21 day ‘Prayers of Mastamma’ in the temple campus of Dharmakunda as penance. She is kidnapped by a man who wants her to embrace Islam, and marry him. She somehow escapes captivity and returns to her village where the elders are reluctant to accept her back. She removes her hereditary anklet and leaves the village with her son to lead a new life.
Elite 100 - Mon 24 Nov 17:30, Wed 26 Nov 15:00
Rainbow R M - Fri 28 Nov 12:30
BYO: Academy of Music - Sat 6 Dec 11:00
Nat Gall JKT - Sun 7 Dec 14:00
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Disobedient
Mozambique
2002, DVD, 92min, Feature
Director: Licinio Azevedo
Assistant director : António Forjaz
Camera: João Costa
Sound: Gabriel Mondlane
Producer: Licinio Azevedo
Rosa, a Mozambican peasant, is accused of having caused her husband’s suicide by refusing to obey him. She is suspected to have a “spirit-husband”. In order to prove her innocence Rosa submits herself to two trials: one by a traditional healer, the other in court. She is absolved twice. Nevertheless, the dead man’s relatives will persecute her till their revenge prevails.
COS Harare Gardens - Sat 22 Nov 17:30, Thu 27 Nov 17:30
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Emma’s Bliss
Germany
2006, 35mm, 103mins, Feature
Director: Sven Taddiken
Screenplay: Ruth Toma
Editor: Andreas Wodraschke
Production: Hamburg
Max does not have long to live. He wants to spend his last few days far away from it all. A loud car crash wakes Emma abruptly. Thrown from the car, Max lies unconscious in a meadow. Emma carries him into the house and nurses him. The well-built fellow appears to have found heaven on earth. When he winds up on the farm of the headstrong pig breeder, Emma, after the accident, he learns that real happiness is closer than he thought.
Elite 100 - Sat 22 Nov 15:00, Tue 25 Nov 15:00
Raibow R M - Fri 28 Nov 15:00
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From My Window, Without A Home
Canada/ Lebanon
2006, DVD, 87mins, Feature
Director: Maryanne Zehil
Screenplay: Nathalie Moliavko-Visotzky, Hasan Nahmam
Cast: Louise Portal, Reene Thomas, Leyla Hakim
Unable to live the life imposed upon her, that of a traditional mother, Sana (Louise Portal), a Lebanese woman, leaves her four-year-old daughter with her mother and emigrates to Montreal. Choosing to be a woman before a mother, she escapes the self-sacrifice inherent to Middle Eastern women. In her new life, Sana can live in harmony with her own nature, needs and desires. This brings on a deep guilt, which leads Sana to want to cut all ties with her past. 17 years later, on impulse, Sana invites her daughter, Dounia (Renée Thomas), to Montreal. This encounter reignites the suffering she has tried to forget and reveals the bitter sacrifice that was necessary for her own survival. For Dounia, her first contact with the Western world will enable her to understand the reasons behind her mother’s departure, and to question her own existence.
Gallery Delta - Mon 24 Nov 12:30, Fri 28 Nov 17:30
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Goodnight Irene
Portugal
2008, 35mm, 98mins, Feature
Cast: Robert Pugh, Nuno Lopes, Rita Loureiro, Amadeu, Carolino, Virgilio Ganca
Writer/editor/director: Paulo-Marinou Blanco
Although strangers to one another, Alex and Bruno´s lives are set to change when Irene, an attractive Portuguese painter, moves into the apartment next to Alex’s. Joyful and passionate about life, Irene is everything Alex and Bruno are not, and the two men’s lives begin to gravitate obsessively around her. Then one day, inexplicably, Irene disappears.
Gallery Delta - Fri 21 Nov 15:00, Mon 24 Nov 15:00
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Harare International School Project
The Harare International School presents its class project -
Hilarious advertisements and an exploration of the feminine.
Gallery Delta - Tue 25 Nov 15:30
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Honeymoon
China
2006, DVD, 85mins, Feature
Cast: Wang Ning and Shang Yue
Producer/Director: Chen Jun
DOP: Er Dongjun
Production: Shanxi Film Studio and Beijing Shidai Jiaxun Cultural Media Co. Ltd.
Newly married Liu Yan expects to have a bright future. But there is a difficult problem yet to overcome, that is, a warm family depends on whether she can successfully play the role of stepmother to 16 year old Xiao Fei. After his father goes away on business, Xiao Fei runs away from home and almost becomes prey to a criminal gang because he cannot accept Liu Yan as his stepmother. Liu Yan goes through many hardships in looking for Xiao Fei and making herself accepted by her stepson, but she always fails to communicate with him. “Love” finally brings the mother and the son, who have no blood relationship, out of conflict to mutual love.
Gallery Delta - Tue 25 Nov 20:00, Wed 26 Nov 17:30
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I Want a Wedding Dress
Zimbabwe
2008, DVD, 26mins, Short Feature (out of competition)
Writer and Director: Tsitsi Dangarembga
Producer: Nyerai Films
Camera: Linette Frewin
Music: Sister Flame
Editor: Olaf Koschke
I Want a Wedding Dress is the story of Kundisai, a young woman, who desperately wants a beautiful wedding dress for her impending wedding, both to satisfy her vanity and also to cheer up her not-very-well-off boyfriend, who is afraid Kundisai will choose not to marry a poor man. Kundisai has to make a series of choices.
COS, Harare Gardens - Fri 21 Nov 17:30, (Tue 25 Nov 17:00 by invite)
BYO: Stanley Hall - Thu 4 Dec 14:00; Macdonald Hall - Fri 5 Dec 14:00
Nat Gall JKT - Sat 6 Dec 11:00
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Inflation
Zimbabwe
2008, DVD, 2mins, Short Feature
Writer and Director : Christine Anderson
Producer: ZIFFT
Camera: Linette Frewin
Music: Afriqua
Editor: Masa
Inflation traces the birth, life and death of a Zimbabwean $10,000 note as the economy goes up in smoke. Christine Anderson, writer/director of this film that won the ZIFFT Calabash Prize 2008, received her latest training before making her short film from the Women Filmmakers of Zimbabwe/Nyerai Films Frame It Motion Picture Photography workshop.
COS Harare Gardens - Fri 21 Nov 12:30, Mon 24 Nov 15:00
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Iron Ladies of Liberia
USA
2007, DVD, 77mins, Documentary
Co-Directors: Daniel Junge and Siatta Scott Johnson
Iron Ladies of Liberia is a unique look behind the scenes at the rebirth of a nation and democracy in action, under the steady hand of a woman determined to use the power of position to help her people and move her country forward. After nearly two decades of brutal civil war, Liberia was a nation ready for change. In January 2006, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was inaugurated President elect of the African nation. Since her surprising victory, President Sirleaf has appointed women to key positions throughout the government. This diverse group of women, along with other women across the country, has adopted their popular President’s nickname: they are all “Iron Ladies of Liberia”.
Gallery Delta - Mon 24 Nov 17:30
COS, Harare Gardens - Sat 29 Nov 15:00
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Lakshmi and Me
India
2007, DVD, 59mins, Documentary
Director: Nishtha Jain
Producer: Smriti Nevatia
Editor: Rikke Selin Lorentzen
DOP: Deepti Gupta, Rakesh Heridas
Exploring the relationship between employer and servant, this is a delicate and brave documentary which asks how two women negotiate the ingrained social and cultural attitudes that govern their lives. Based in Mumbai, Indian filmmaker Jain turns the camera on her maid Lakshmi and finds the delicate boundaries of their tentative friendship are put to the test through Lakshmi’s unexpected pregnancy and illness.
Gallery Delta - Sat 22 Nov 15:00
COS, Harare Gardens - Fri 28 Nov 12:30
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Life in Slow Motion
Nigeria/ Ghana, DVD
2008, 17mins, Documentary
Director: Tunde Kelani
Producer: Tunde Kelani
Script: Tunde Kelani
The story is a morality tale about what’s known as the ‘Dutch Effect’; the fact that oil (and other resource wealth) has often been more of a curse than a blessing in African countries and for the most vulnerable section of the population in particular. Jimi Bello, a Nigerian bureaucrat attends an energy conference in neighbouring Ghana.
COS, Harare Gardens - Sat 22 Nov 12:30, Mon 24 Nov 12:30
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Long Weekend, The
Belgium
2005, DVD, 93mins, Feature
Director: Hans Herbots
Writer: Pierre De Clercq
Two ex-factory workers hijack their former manager in his own house and they force him to pay every factory worker. When the manager’s mistress shows up everything gets out of control.
Gallery Delta - Sat 22 Nov 17:30, Tue 25 Nov 17:30
BYO: Nat Gall JKT - Sat 6 Dec 14:00
Macdonald Hall - Fri 5 Dec 18:00
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Maids
Brazil
2000, DVD, 80mins, Feature
Director: Fernando Meireles, Nando Olival
Screenplay: Cecilia Homemde Mello, Fernando Meirelies, Nando Olival, Renata
Producer: Andrea Berata Ribeiro
This film is about the lives of domestic labourers and their bleak existence. They all live differently in their current occupation, the most frequent are women who were born into it. “Maids” attempts to find solace in the humanism of the maids’ lives and is in homage to the strong women of Brazil. Women whose energy and dynamism gives them a freedom that their masters can only dream of.
COS, Harare Gardens - Sat 22 Nov 15:00
Gallery Delta - Sun 23 Nov 12:30
BYO: Academy of Music - Sat 6 Dec 17:00
Nat Gall JKT - Sun 7 Dec 16:00
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